Major Pharmacists' Diabetes Project

INFORMATION FROM THIS BRIEFING EMBARGOEDFOR RELEASE UNTIL MARCH 30, 2003, 12 NOON (EASTERN)

Media BriefingThe Asheville Project--Community Pharmacists Making a Real Difference

When: Sunday, March 30, 2003Time: 11:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M.Where: Morial Convention Center, Room 256

This briefing will be introduced by Tery Baskin, PharmD, Treasurer of the APhA Foundation, and moderated by Daniel G. Garrett, MS, RPh, Senior Director of Medication Adherence Programs for the APhA Foundation.

Media Briefing:In 1997 the Asheville Project was implemented when an employer, the City of Asheville, N.C. struggled with how to contain its rapidly increasing employee health costs. As documented in four articles in the March-April issue of JAPhA, the result was a system in which pharmacists developed thriving patient care services in their community pharmacies that resulted in employees, retirees and dependents with diabetes experiencing improved A1c's, lower total health care costs, fewer days of missed work and increased satisfaction with pharmacist's services. The city found its health care dollars being spent to keep people well instead of being used to pay for treating illnesses after they had worsened. Publication of the Asheville Project Studies is a landmark step for community pharmacy and the management of chronic disease in the effort to establish processes to achieve positive clinical, humanistic and economic outcomes for patients, providers and payers.

Authors:Barry A Bunting, PharmDClinical Manager for Community Pharmacy ServicesDiabetes and Health Education CenterMission-St. Joseph's Health SystemAsheville, NC

Dale B. Christensen, PhDMescal S. Ferguson Professor and ChairmanDivision of Pharmaceutical Policy and Evaluative SciencesSchool of PharmacyUniversity of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Carole W. Cranor, PhDPharmacoeconomistPPD Development, Inc.Morrisville, NC

Daniel G. Garrett, MS, RPhSenior Director, Medication Adherence ProgramsAPhA Foundation

L. Michael PoseyEditorJournal of the American Pharmaceutical Association